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Should we continue?

Hello, all! This is my first post so I would like to say hi to everybody! This seems like such a supportive place and I definitely need some support right now. This is our first official year of homeschooling so I'm still trying to figure everything out.

My question is about my 6yo ds. He had shown a lot of interest in learning to speak Spanish so I bought Level 1 of La Clase Divertida for this year. We are half-way finished with the program and my ds has done very well with it. We've had a lot of fun and he retains the information well. However, now he suddenly says he doesn't want to do it anymore. I don't know why. I know that he is young and has plenty of time to learn Spanish if he wants to, but I would like to continue because he is doing so well with it. I also DON'T want to continue just because I want to, if that makes sense. I don't want to force something on him that's going to make him hate something that he once enjoyed...

I guess my question is, should I just drop it and come back to it in a year or two? Or should I persevere and hopefully get over this hump?

I would probably just drop the Spanish for now. He's 6. What I might do is find some free online games or ipad games to let him play. Maybe that would encourage him a bit. I would not push it at 6. He may want to pick it back up later, and I would let him, and if he loses interest again, I'd let him drop it again. Maybe you could find some fun things, stuff that doesn't seem like "school" -- how about a book or two of 1000 words in Spanish? https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...+spanish+words or a CD of Spanish kid songs or nursery rhymes in Spanish? https://www.amazon.com/Mother-Goose-...mes+in+spanish

We used La Clase Divertida for 2 years, but we also dropped it when no one wanted to watch the videos anymore. My girls were little, and we were just trying Spanish as something different and fun. Once it was no longer fun, we stopped.

Mom to Grace (14), Sarah (12), and Hannah (10)
Using my college degree in ways I never imagined....

Learning a second language at a younger age is so lovely because it can be picked up quite quickly, on the other hand if the child isn't interested it's just a struggle for both of you. I don't know that I'd quit entirely, but I might take a little break. I'd speak with the words/phrases he knows, & maybe find little shows he could watch that are in that language as well. I think Muzzy does Spanish & their videos are on YouTube, we watch the French ones to help ourselves keep up with the speed at which it's spoken at times.

Either way, I just wouldn't make a huge deal of it.

Kendra, wife of Lawrence, mother of three.

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.

Jessica, I think we Mamas learn so much as we continue on this journey. I have 4 dc and have been hsing since my oldest was in K. I "pushed" my oldest too much over some things when she was younger (like Saxon 1st grade math in K -- btw, I learned my lesson that year after we both cried and beat our heads against the wall numerous times, and the next year we did Abeka 1st grade math in 1st ) I think as the years have gone by, I've learned to push something things where they NEED them, and then just ENJOY the journey more. As they get older (middle school and especially high school) that you HAVE to do, it's definitely better (IMO ) to just explore and enjoy as they're younger. It's not that you're not doing anything I just jump around a lot with my youngest at this point -- we follow a lot of interest-led learning. Don't be afraid to let things go at any point of the journey if it's not working. For example, when my older ones were probably 4th and 6th or 3rd and 5th???? we started the Apologia Anatomy (elementary). They enjoyed it for awhile, and then it became torture for everyone. They'd had enough. I dropped it. Maybe that's bad, and maybe everyone wouldn't agree with me, but their interests moved to other areas, and we were still doing FIAR, so we had plenty of science. Even in high school, it's taken me THREE French curricula to find one that's a good fit. That's not a cheap problem, btw They have to have a Foreign Language, but working with something that doesn't "fit" is hard, so we plugged along until we did find a fit, and now the girls (and I) are enjoying it and learning and aren't frustrated.

One big thing I had to learn early on is that *I* am the "master," and the curriculum is the "slave." I don't have to follow prescribed/set instructions exactly if it's not working. You can move faster or slower. You can start at Chapter 6 and then go to chapter 10 and then chapter 1 (if that makes sense). YOU know your child/children to best of anyone, and the joy of homeschooling is that you CAN meet needs individually